- [Julia] When I was younger, and I would go outside and play in the dirt, and go hiking and we'd dig up plants and plant plants and try to transplant plants from one place to the other.

It was definitely a process of wanting to learn more about the world around me.

Learn more about my place in it and how I can impact the world around me.

My name is Julia, I'm in 12th grade, and I attend Duchesne Academy of the Sacred Heart in Houston, Texas.

Space-based Research has the opportunity to definitely improve our lives on earth.

Lots of experiments that are happening on the International Space Station have lots of real world applications, believe it or not, such as plant growth experiments.

In eighth grade, we were given this opportunity by CASIS to design an experiment to send up to the International Space Station.

Our question was, whether or not blue or red wavelengths of light would have an impact on the growth of pea shoots.

We were given a small cubic box called the ArduLab.

We divided the ArduLab in half with blue wavelength on one half and red wavelength on the other.

And through cameras we monitored the growth of the pea shoots.

I always thought of space travel as obviously hard and problematic.

But at least in terms of sending supplies to the International Space Station tried-and-true at this point, I learned that was not the case.

After the third launch was successful, we received our NanoLab back with our actual pea shoots that had been on the International Space Station.

It was quite a surreal experience, having to do this on the actual pea shoots, instead of just ground test ones that we had done before.

- A pea shoot is the plant that comes out of a pea seed.

- [Julia] Some of the opportunities I have received through this CASIS experiment have been wonderful.

I'm bringing it back to Duchesne and sharing everything with the students here, such as with the fifth-graders.

- It took a lot of trial and error to find out a way to make all this wiring fit, to make the cameras fit, and to also have enough space for all the plants in the boxes.

- [Julia] Talking to them about the experience and about how it can open your eyes to new information and new ways of doing research, and new ways of implementing knowledge you learned in a classroom.

So that has been really rewarding.

I love languages a lot.

I think communication is definitely very important, and communicating across cultures in different languages is definitely a skill everyone should have.

After I spent my summer in Russia, I entered with almost nothing, and I left intermediate level.

Learning through immersion is really the way to do it.

It's how you learn about a culture, it's how you learn about a language, it's how you learn about yourself.

(speaking in Russian) Hello, my name is Julia.

I love, love, love to read.

I really feel as if reading opens your mind to new worlds.

I love diving into books, discussing them, and learning about what lessons the author is trying to instill in us.

I also run varsity cross country, and I really am a big believer in being able to do things yourself, so, I really get a lot of enjoyment out of knowing I can run X amount, in X time, and being able to depend on myself.

For a long time now I've wanted to eventually become a foreign service officer, and work for the State Department in diplomacy in different countries.

So, seeing the inter-country discussions and communications that have happened on the International Space Station have definitely shown me that this is something that is achievable and has driven me even more so into diplomacy.

I'm not a huge science person, but it's still definitely really rewarding.

You can gain a lot from it, you can learn more about yourself, and the world around you.

I know I can create my own success, I can make the best of whatever happens to me in life.

I'm excited to go to college, and have a completely unique experience, and I'm excited to see what that turns out to be.